District Improvement Enhancing Building-Level

Project Title 1 Programs

Jennifer Wickersham

Project Goals

• Increase building level understanding and application of Title 1 funding,

connection to assessments, program autonomy, and coherence of procedures
aligned with policy.
• Adoption and implementation of a common parent engagement tool. Moving
schools from “involvement” to “engagement” mindset.

Project Overview

• Determine my role as Federal Programs co-coordinator.

• Data dive into various aspects of standardized test results.
• Break Down information that schools share to show “who we are, who we serve,
and how we know it works.”
• Development of a common parent engagement tool.
• Communication
o One-on-One coaching with building level leaders
o Parent Engagement strategies
▪ Increased modalities of communication
o Federal Program policies and procedures
▪ District
▪ Building Level
• Professional Development
o Continue PD as Federal Program Co-Coordinator
o Facilitate PD for building level staff

Recommendations moving forward:

• Continue breakdown of current Federal program policies and what procedures

we have in place.
• Assist with supporting the idea of DEFINED autonomy, accountability, and
coherence.
• Deeper evaluation of Title 1 program success, return on investment, student
growth.
• One-on-one meetings with school leadership to determine evaluation criteria
and data to support Title 1 program decisions.
• Continue to work with schools on monitoring parent engagement plans.
• Professional Growth
• Title 1 budget allocations and timetables PD.
• Develop a more concise timetable for my own work.
Supporting Literature

Barbour, C., Barbour, N. H., & Scully, P. A. (2005). Families, schools and communities:
building partnerships for educating children (3rd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson, Merrill, Prentice Hall.

Barr, J., & Saltmarsh, S. (2014). “It all comes down to the leadership”: The role of the
school principal in fostering parent-school engagement. Educational
Management Administration & Leadership, 42(4), 491-505.

Berger, E. H. (2000). Parents as partners in education: families and schools working

together (5th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Epstein, J. L. (1995, May). School/family/community partnerships. Phi Delta Kappan, 76,

702-712.

Mendez, J. L., & Swick, D. (2018). Guilford parent academy: A collaborative effort to
engage parents in children's education. Education and Treatment of
Children, 41(2), 249.

Michigan Department of Education (2011) “Collaborating for success” parent

engagement toolkit. Lansing, MI.

Warren, M. R., Hong, S., Rubin, C. H., & Uy, P. S. (2009). Beyond the bake sale: A
community-based relational approach to parent engagement in schools.
Teachers College Record, v111 n p2209-2254.